The Pharmacy(tm)

A couple of months ago, I had an interesting chat with Ricky Maramba, who is a common friend of my girlfriend and (who would have guessed) my mother. He authored a book entitled The Force which dealt with universal forces and how to harness them for your own benefit–not too far away from The Secret. The book is already out of print (it never really took off), but a few copies remain scattered around book sales.

It’s nice to talk to Ricky, because he has a very open and insightful view of religion and how they affect us. It’s really a touchy topic to most people, because for many, religion is a basic block of their beliefs, and to have them challenged or examined, is to shake the very foundations of how they think.

One reason why movies and books like the Da Vinci Code become sensational and popular, is because it provides another glimpse at commonly held assumptions.

One think Ricky mentioned stuck to me when we started talking about atheism. Does atheism mean:

“I don’t believe in God.” or;
“I don’t believe in a god.” or;
“I don’t have beliefs.”

It’s important to distinguish, because to reject “theism” and to simply not believe in it can be very different things. Ironically, atheists disagree amongst themselves a lot about what it means to be an atheist–as if atheism could be considered a religion in itself.

Interestingly, religion is my no means the only basically held tenet for many people. And my conversation with Ricky made me think about those other things that people consider “basic” to them–that if we knocked out those pillars, would it change people? For the better?

Ricky warned me before we engaged in our talk: “don’t take our banter too seriously, or you might get confused.” He knew my mother was a very religious person.

“Try me.” I said.